50mph speed limit could cut death toll (From Bournemouth Echo)
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50mph speed limit could cut death toll
7:00am Tuesday 10th March 2009 in
A DORSET road safety chief has cautiously welcomed proposals that would cut the speed limit on rural roads to 50mph.
A drop from the current limit of 60mph could help save 250 lives a year, claims research from the Department of Transport.
Drivers are three times as likely to die per mile driven on rural roads as on urban roads.
Tim Westwood, Dorset County Council’s traffic manager, said that with large swathes of the county connected by classic tight-and-twisty rural roads, a slashing of the limit could save lives.
He said: “In rural areas our roads historically have relatively poor alignment.
“As the drop in speed limit would be mainly a safety measure, we would be fairly supportive.”
Mr Westwood said the A35 between Bere Regis and the Baker’s arms – a notorious accident blackspot –had already seen a reduction to a 50mph limit along parts of it.
But the road has also been the subject of major engineering works to improve visibility at junctions and road layout.
Mr Westwood said: “Dropping the limit is by no means the only answer. Driver awareness and education is also crucial. On rural roads you might come up against tractors or other slow-moving vehicles, so you have to adapt.”
The average speed on 60mph rural roads has been found to be only 48mph in free-flowing conditions.
Edmund King, president of the AA, said a 60mph limit may be appropriate for well-designed rural roads, but that lowering the limit could cause frustration and raise the risk of dangerous overtaking.
The Institute of Advanced Motorists said a 50mph speed limit would not command respect unless drivers could see a clear link to risk.
p> TIMELINE: How many more have to die on the A338?
Comments(16)
rayc
says...
8:40am Tue 10 Mar 09
limit?
Come on show some facts to back up the estimate of 250 lives saved a year. How many is that saved in Dorset?
2Much...again!
says...
8:45am Tue 10 Mar 09
If you're stuck behind a funeral or a tractor, then i think you should just accept that "that's that!" and wait until you can get your foot down a bit.
Having said that, if someone is driving slowly on a fast road because they are trying to find something, or are just a slow driver, it would show courtesy to have consideration for the drivers behind you and pull in to let them pass. So often I'm behind someone who's stop-start, breaking then carrying on..this is also a reason for accidents.
Good manners counts for a lot, even on the roads!
O'Really
says...
9:37am Tue 10 Mar 09
In addition to the annual carnage on the roads local and national ( killing and maiming humans and animals alike, and destroying countryside), automobiles are responsible for a huge amount of air/noise pollution and wasted energy. These problems impact people all over the country, motorists and non-motorists alike, affecting everyone's health, environment and communities.
We have been seduced by slick advertising and coerced by successive governments into a situation which is clearly not to our benefit.
If we were to invest in public transport ie more trains and more buses and more canals, there would be less deaths, less injuries, less energy use, less pollution, less congestion. We would actually be able to get around quicker, cheaper and with less stress than at present. Road rage would be a thing of the past. We could talk to each other as we travel instead of venting frustrated anger behind our windowed little boxes. Kids could play in the streets again.
Johnnytheboy
says...
12:41pm Tue 10 Mar 09
So instead they will lower the speed to 50 and when that doesn't work, lower it to 40. If the medicine isn't working, change the medicine, don't increase the dose!
I urge you all to sign the petition at http://petitions.num
ber10.gov.uk/noNSLre
duction and kick this absurd proposal into the long grass.
Nickolai
says...
12:44pm Tue 10 Mar 09
Bob49
says...
1:52pm Tue 10 Mar 09
Conveniently ignores that those statistics merely reflect the speed stated by those involved in the accidents. Yep, they are all going to tell the truth.
Conveniently dodges the question of wherher reduced speed has reduced accidents and fatakities - the 'facts' stae there is, but that is merely lower speed limits less accidents. No proof of course and effect.
Sign the petition, Greed is good. We should return to a Daily Mail world where bobbies run up the high street in a line with their truncheons raised high. Maybe other infringements on our freedom should be repealed - the seat belt law, deink and dtiving. Both were met with such selfish arguments against when proposed.
Lack of concentration, bad judgement etc are usually one off actions that would be very hard to monitor. You would have to flood the roads with police (undercover) to have the least degree of effect.
It is the attitude of drivers that needs to change - a move away from a selfish, 'me first' behaviour that permeates much of driving as well as society in general.
All to sadly, johhnyboy's views merely support that attitude.
To waffle about " real, breathing traffic police " pretty much tells us all we need to know what lies behind this Enid Blyton perspective.
585
says...
1:57pm Tue 10 Mar 09
Public transport depends on people using it. The numerous small villages and hamlets in this and many other counties will not be viable for use of public transport since with a handful of inhabitants (even less where many houses are used by 'second-homers') there will not be enough passenger-miles generated. In addition journey times will be greatly increased where public transport does not start or finish at the required places.
Johnnytheboy, Wimborne
I am afraid that there are too many in a position of influence who would not agree with the proposal to improve roads, this costs money. On the other hand, lowering the limit and installing so-called safety cameras puts money into the government's coffers. They will be bringing back the men with red flags to walk in front of vehicles next.
We didn't have all these signs and speed limits when I was younger, vehicles were less well engineered but we managed quite well.
cooperman
says...
3:28pm Tue 10 Mar 09
when open road meets idiot it equals death or serious injury and thats all there is to it ,you cannot plan for that eventuality
EGHH
says...
4:54pm Tue 10 Mar 09
PokesdownMark
says...
5:31pm Tue 10 Mar 09
I personally think a 50mph limit will do little to reduce the accidents. If you look at the fatal accidents on our roads, I've been following these myself over the last few years, it is clear that many are not due to IMPROPER speed. You have a variety of reasons from the fluke trailer being detached, drivers losing control at sub-30mph speeds (often elderly drivers in automatics) and people tragically crossing the centre of the road and having head on collisions. The guy who drive down the cliff was lucky not to be on the list!
It should be possible to review all of the fatal accidents in Dorset and see how many would have been prevented if a 50mph limit was in place and being adhered to. It would not be right for the govt to introduce this change without showing us this evidence. No point because it would be widely flouted. Its either a good idea for good scientific reasoning or its not!
What alarms me is how a 50mph limit might bunch cars up and make legitimate overtaking more dangerous. Look at how the 50mph cameras on Wessex Way cause bunching!
supermac
says...
7:02pm Tue 10 Mar 09
PokesdownMark
says...
8:20pm Tue 10 Mar 09
supermac wrote:Yes I know what you mean. I really do. Drivers like that are irritating. BUT is this type of driver the cause of fatal accidents?
Drove along A338 fordingbridge to Ringwood 7 in the morning.Young lad overtook me on the bend crossing the solid white lines in the process,oblivious to the rules of the highway and safety to others.On another day he could possibly crash head on with A.N.OTHER.This type of driver has no fear behind the wheel or any regard for anyone else other than his or her self.
I reckon the cause is drivers of all ages, both genders, partly due to poor driving, avoiding animals, faulty mechanicals. Each fatal accident is studied closely. Damage is assessed, tyre marks measured, vehicles examined. All goes into a report. So the answers are there. Will we get to see them? Or will we just have to continue blind speculation?
Johnnytheboy
says...
9:02pm Tue 10 Mar 09
k/162259/162469/2214
12/221549/227755/rcg
b2007.pdf and open your mind.
The often quoted "1/3 of accidents are due to speeding" includes ones where it was only a contributory factor, and crucially "inappropriate speed for the conditions within the limit", which is hardly the same thing, is it.
terry1965
says...
12:01pm Wed 11 Mar 09
Better still, put a speed camera every 100 yards on every road or have all car engines restricted to 20mph. Failing that, let's revert to having a man walking in front of every car waving a red flag.
For goodness sake it's about time people woke up & realised that cars are evil & so are motorists. Unless the Govt implement one of the above measures urgently we will have to accept the consequence that cars will continue to bump into each other. That's unacceptable in this day & age!
Act now! Ban all cars.
dorsetspeed
says...
9:50pm Thu 12 Mar 09
That’s a very emotional outburst against Johnnytheboy! I don’t see anything incorrect in what he has written. He suggests lowering the speed limit to 50 won’t work and I agree with him. Once speed limits get significantly below the natural safe speed for the road, they are ignored, and will therefore increase the number of drivers breaking the speed limit and with increasing justification. I’m not saying this is right, it’s just the way it is as you will have noticed if you drive.
He is also correct to point out that the government, who make a healthy profit from speed cameras, are biased into the benefits of introducing speed limits which it knows everyone will ignore and but knows it will get away with it because of the brainwashing messages about everything being ok if you drive at the limit, but you’re a mass murdering maniac if you do more than 3 over, which is clearly complete nonsense. The government therefore do their best to exaggerate the speed problem.
If you drive, and observe with an open mind, you will be much more concerned with drivers who lane hog, haven’t a clue about adjusting their speed on sliproads, rubberneck, drive too close, drive too slow, demonstrate a total lack of awareness of other road users, boy racers going way too fast, aggressive drivers, etc etc, than you will be about normal driving at sensible speeds, below or 20 above.
So Johnnytheboy is also right to point out that all the problems on the road cannot be tackled by just reducing speed limits, and that some sensible human road policing would identify and correct many of the problems.
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godzillareturns says...
7:23am Tue 10 Mar 09
How about driver patience, I witnessed yesterday the most obnoxious and rude driving I have ever seen. I was walking to school with my grandson yesterday at about 12pm when I saw a funeral cortege come out of legion road Hamworthy, There were several cars following the hearse and the last car looked left along Coles Ave and obviously felt it ok to turn out into the road to keep up. A van came flying down Coles ave and because he was obliged to break a bit, and it was not that he would have hit the car in front, he blasted his horn and then drove right up behind the car tooting as he did. He obviously needed to be somewhere quicker than a funeral, I am amazed there are not more accidents the way some people drive.